Housepets!

My peripheral vision saw the "Poof" panel and I thought for a minute that maybe he was turned into a dog or something. Darn.

I hope in the last page of this arc we at least see who the other players of the U&U Game are.

so....is it correct to assume the whole point of this trial, the theft of Joel's fate, was already settled as an attempt to override the book of fate so that Kitsune couldn't use it against Pete?

valerio wrote:so....is it correct to assume the whole point of this trial, the theft of Joel's fate, was already settled as an attempt to override the book of fate so that Kitsune couldn't use it against Pete?

Yeah I believe that was basically it. How Joel's Fate ball was going to do that we still have no idea

hmm...
Rick, mods, please, please, don't take this the wrong way, but...at this point, without explaining that the whole trial gets defanged as an arc -I mean, the explanation thing could've happened with any other pretext, but the trial was centered on the theft. Without explaing what was it about (or rather, keeping it in the background) we're left hanging for a cause for nothing, as it is.
Sorry, my rusty 2 cents *gets ready for the sticks*

valerio wrote:hmm...
Rick, mods, please, please, don't take this the wrong way, but...at this point, without explaining that the whole trial gets defanged as an arc -I mean, the explanation thing could've happened with any other pretext, but the trial was centered on the theft. Without explaing what was it about (or rather, keeping it in the background) we're left hanging for a cause for nothing, as it is.
Sorry, my rusty 2 cents *gets ready for the sticks*

Truthfully Rick does have one more page in which he could explain it (unless it was and I some how missed it) in this arc.

Like I know what happens in that Furret's head! He is an enigma, to be sure. I am just very happy with the arc, and enjoy it immensely!

Dissension wrote:It's entirely possible fan overreaction caused the arc to be cut short, leaving some elements in the dark. That's just speculation on my part, though.

Well he planned on this only being until the end of the year which it is going right up to I doubt he would have cut that much out if anything.

Dissension wrote:It's entirely possible fan overreaction caused the arc to be cut short, leaving some elements in the dark. That's just speculation on my part, though.

actually, I thought this arc was supposed to end with the end of the comic year, which would mean that it hasn't been cut short. Plus, Rick already said he'd just finish this arc the way he planned.

let's hope so. After that 'demotivation' thing, all alarms started to ring...

Well umm.. even now I am confused cause I am lost. Whether or not if pete even learned anything we never know but such is the arc. I guess that mean that Pete isn't allow to mess with Joel's fate anymore and still allow entry into heaven? and since that he not allow to use Joel ( since he is a third party/enemy player) does that mean that Pete has to find a new avatar? so many unanswered questions.. still love the arc though, great use of subjective time .

I don't feel strange about the fact something remained in the dark. Explain EVERYTHING here would be too... quick. And don't forget that Karishad and Keene have a ENORMOUS point for a reconnection to explain the remaining things.

I really hope it's not because of the fan's reaction. Because i'm really intrigued by this nerds thing

that was...anticlimatic.
edit: Okay, Rick, did you came up with this "plot point" after the complaints or was this the original idea of plot development?
One could say that pete might learn something by spending so much time in solitary, but that would imply unsee character development, which is bad from a story-telling perspective. But this wasn't the case. There was no development for his character in any way possible because of his line after he was back. If so much time means nothing for Pete
I'm sorry, but I'm just disappointed now.

the 100.000 years solitary confinement thing was the occasion for a gag.
Pete is still barred from heaven, a harsh punishment for a creature supposed to belong there. Too bad he's so egomaniacal as to give a heck to such punishment.
The real tricky question is: how will he get King to work for him after he's practically been told both by the game rules AND the highest authorities not to interfere with him.

valerio wrote:the 100.000 years solitary confinement thing was the occasion for a gag.
Pete is still barred from heaven, a harsh punishment for a creature supposed to belong there. Too bad he's so egomaniacal as to give a heck to such punishment.
The real tricky question is: how will he get King to work for him after he's practically been told both by the game rules AND the highest authorities not to interfere with him.

I know it was just a gag. But, honestly. It sounded...stupid. Bahamut heard Pete. He knew that he experienced subjective time. Bahamut and everyone else is complete aware that such penalty is useless and doesn't do anything to prevent Pete from doing anyhing wrong again. The ONLY explanation of why such "punsihment" was given to FIT in the plot would be that Bahamut and everyone else there is corrupt and downright evil and were onbly staging a fake trial in case their boss or superior were watching them from somewhere. But I pretty much know that the answer would be a "no" for that. If Ricky wanted he could have exposed what the celestial nerds are up to without the use of a trial, like the Great kitsune and Pete talking to each other or with someone else and explaning what was going on. the usage of a trial would be either for inflict a PUNISHMENT for Pete or to absolve him of everything (the latter is for the corrupt system explanation). the so-called punishment was useless as we could see it was just "you tampered with the natural order. Don't do it again. But we'l do nothing to prevent you from doing so again. Anbd even if you do, we'll just warm you again."

who wants to date a Gryphon that has been in jail for 100,000 years at this point?

no no no no.
Angel, please not that, believe me. we alread went through the 'you're omniscient you already know everything' thing and it's been set and convened that a break in the 4th wall was needed so that the READERS could understand what was going on.
The process has been just and fair, and I'll add what i think a fitting elaboration:

the years penalty was for breaking and trying to steal a mortal's soul. Since such attempt was immediately thwarted by Cerberus, there would be no point in inflicting unnecessary time to serve. And a gag is always good if well-placed, like in this case.

Barring Pete is the real sentence. We still don't know the long-term effect of such sentence, but you can bet they won't be light on him, as he's a heavenly creature after all.
Such sentence was inflicted because Pete changed a human into a dog! And THAT screwed up the celestial bureaucracy -imagine, one's life is set as member of a given species and then *poof* he could be go to heaven due to his new nature despite his acts as humans. Ack! And add the choice factor, which keeps the file suspended at the moment.

valerio wrote:no no no no.
Angel, please not that, believe me. we alread went through the 'you're omniscient you already know everything' thing and it's been set and convened that a break in the 4th wall was needed so that the READERS could understand what was going on.
The process has been just and fair, and I'll add what i think a fitting elaboration:

the years penalty was for breaking and trying to steal a mortal's soul. Since such attempt was immediately thwarted by Cerberus, there would be no point in inflicting unnecessary time to serve. And a gag is always good if well-placed, like in this case.

Barring Pete is the real sentence. We still don't know the long-term effect of such sentence, but you can bet they won't be light on him, as he's a heavenly creature after all.
Such sentence was inflicted because Pete changed a human into a dog! And THAT screwed up the celestial bureaucracy -imagine, one's life is set as member of a given species and then *poof* he could be go to heaven due to his new nature despite his acts as humans. Ack! And add the choice factor, which keeps the file suspended at the moment.

I wasn't even talking about omniscience...
If I were the judge, I wouldn't need to look into the future to know that what Pete was doing is bad. If Bahamut wanted he could have imprisoned Pete for 100.000 years in a way he couldn't meddle with the mortals along this time. besides, He gave one punishment. It'll be an even stupidier development if Bahamut does soemthing like: "hmm. I know I just punished you, but I have the crazy idea of punishing you again and agan because I felt like my previous sentences weren't enough."
Just give ONE well given punishment.

and it was given: and TWO, at that.
No more interfering with King (though Pete is obsessed and jerk enough to try to circumvent the thing), which heavily interfers with Pete's plans in the game
Exile, which can be hard.
Surely no physical pain or hellish torments, as it would be against the nature of Heaven.
One further punitive measure would be reincarnating Pete into a mortal and powerless for the rest of said mortal life, but we'll wait further developments if it will come to that. (note, and even after that sentence there could be the punishment for losing the game, yet another imprisonment in a mortal body)

Val I would be really happy if the case was that he can't mess with King anymore but I'm not seeing it. How does the Judges ruling do that exactly?

well, the enxt strip will be the last for this arc, isn't it? I'll wait and see how it ends to give my final opinion. But I ddin't like how things came out so easily for Pete. For the omniscience thing, Pete said he loved subjective time DURING the trial and Bahamut HEARD it. And then Bahamut magically FORGOT something that was JUST said during the trial when he applied the punishment. If he wanted he could have imprisoned Pete for 100 years (just to make sure Joel would be dead even if he chose to be human again)but make it feels like 100.000 years. But no. Bahamut is eaither stupid or evil to just assume Pete wouldn't try something fishy again while Joel/King is still alive.

Rather than suggest the entire Housepets! cosmology is evil, perhaps we could look at Rule of Funny again...

Sleet wrote:Rather than suggest the entire Housepets! cosmology is evil, perhaps we could look at Rule of Funny again...

The problem is that the rule of funny backstabs the plot.

Really, everyone who reads these later (when there are more strips and arcs following) will have no problem attributing this to rule of funny. And ironically this has a lot to do with subjective time as well

Edit: also we have a "punishment fits the crime" moment here since Bahamut is sentencing Pete for "complicat[ing] matters for the celestial bureaucracy"
(a minor crime = a minor punishment)
If there is any comeuppance to be had for stealing Joel's soul, we will see it at a later date

There is no pleasing some of you people.

IceKitsune wrote:Val I would be really happy if the case was that he can't mess with King anymore but I'm not seeing it. How does the Judges ruling do that exactly?

Since I can't see heavenly authorities here be proactive, I take it that, for now, Pete is *expected* to behave. Just like in the mortal world, benefit of doubt etc.
As for monitoring him, it can be assumed that it will be up to Dragon and Kitsune -both because they're involved players and dragon wouldn't miss an occasion to mess with Pete's plans, AND because I can't see Kitsune getting away with it if he allowed Pete to cross the line again, game or no game.

angelusbr wrote:

Sleet wrote:Rather than suggest the entire Housepets! cosmology is evil, perhaps we could look at Rule of Funny again...

The problem is that the rule of funny backstabs the plot.

So, do you want to say the many examples of past meta-jokes backstabbed the plot, too?

It's like the omniscience thing, just for different purposes. Back then it lampshaded the narrative convention, here it's a quick deal to achieve the one-gag-per-strip quota.

Foxstar wrote:There is no pleasing some of you people.

First rule of a writer: If you try to pelase all, you'll please none. If this was indeed what Rick planned for this arc. Then I'm really disapointed with its end.and He should not care about my opinion as long as he's content with his own work. But I have the odd feeling the arc was going to be different (I might be wrong, of course). If the arc was going to have a different ending, could you at least tell us, Rick, what was the original end of it? If I'm wrong and this is really the end of it then just ignore this post.
A story driven by the fans will only cause a mess.

Liam wrote: So, do you want to say the many examples of past meta-jokes backstabbed the plot, too?

It's like the omniscience thing, just for different purposes. Back then it lampshaded the narrative convention, here it's a quick deal to achieve the one-gag-per-strip quota.

I would have to re-read housepets to see if I can find other examples of that in Housepets, which I can't remember right now. But I've seen this in animes (Naruto winning a crucial match by farting on the oponent's face), other webcomics (order of the stick does it a lot), etc.

angelusbr wrote:Naruto winning a crucial match by farting on the oponent's face

What's supposed to be meta about that?

angelusbr wrote:

Foxstar wrote:There is no pleasing some of you people.

First rule of a writer: If you try to pelase all, you'll please none. If this was indeed what Rick planned for this arc. Then I'm really disapointed with its end.and He should not care about my opinion as long as he's content with his own work. But I have the odd feeling the arc was going to be different (I might be wrong, of course). If the arc was going to have a different ending, could you at least tell us, Rick, what was the original end of it?

This is exactly what I was planning for this arc. I've changed nothing but bits of dialogue. I wrote it out at the beginning of this month exactly how it would end. Only thing I've added is an additional comic that comes after the one on Friday because I thought it'd be funny.

thank you for the clarification.

Liam wrote:

angelusbr wrote:Naruto winning a crucial match by farting on the oponent's face

What's supposed to be meta about that?

What is "meta"? But that scene annoyed me because Naruto got away n a fight using a cheap comedy moment. Comedy should be used in conversation and situations just to humor. Not to freaking SOLVE the problem.
@Rick: thanks for replying

OH NO!! Does this mean that Pete is free to terrorize King once more.

Oh, -_-.

He could get away with ANYTHING, couldn't he?

By the way, you guys are all overlooking one thing: even without GK's barring of Pete from messing with King, he can never have him as an avatar ANYWAY........ the requirement is that the subject NOT be in love!! King now has a GF, though I still can't support it, and if he DOES love her, the only way Pete can get to King is by eliminating Bailey. Must. Not. Happen.

Oh, and real nice that Pete's gets a SUBJECTIVE 100000 while King's been experiencing an OBJECTIVE 2.5. Hardly equivalent. And what happened to "someone will be by to get the watch any day now?". You gotta say what you MEAN, Sabrina!!

PhoenixAsper wrote:eliminating Bailey.

NO, NEVER, NEVER!!

PhoenixAsper wrote:Oh, -_-.

He could get away with ANYTHING, couldn't he?

By the way, you guys are all overlooking one thing: even without GK's barring of Pete from messing with King, he can never have him as an avatar ANYWAY........ the requirement is that the subject NOT be in love!! King now has a GF, though I still can't support it, and if he DOES love her, the only way Pete can get to King is by eliminating Bailey. Must. Not. Happen.

Oh, and real nice that Pete's gets a SUBJECTIVE 100000 while King's been experiencing an OBJECTIVE 2.5. Hardly equivalent. And what happened to "someone will be by to get the watch any day now?". You gotta say what you MEAN, Sabrina!!

Not being in love requirement only applies to Dream Sunderers which King is not. Even then the Dream Sunderer can still be an Avatar he or she would just be weaker then normal. Its possible that King clearly being more content with his life could make him weaker as a Dark Paladin however since they are powered by discontent.

rickgriffin wrote:Only thing I've added is an additional comic that comes after the one on Friday because I thought it'd be funny.

This kills the funny for you, Mr. Griffin. All the laughs you could have had at our expense... "Another The Trial in Heaven comic on Monday? That's the last thing they'll expect! Muahahahaha!!! "

Should've told us it'd go on for like 3 weeks.

rickgriffin wrote:This is exactly what I was planning for this arc. I've changed nothing but bits of dialogue. I wrote it out at the beginning of this month exactly how it would end. Only thing I've added is an additional comic that comes after the one on Friday because I thought it'd be funny.

So much for the "Negative fan reaction ruined the arc" meme.